Establishing Creative Writing as an AcademicDiscipline in the Higher Education Sector of Pakistan

At various points in their thought processes, researchers often probedeep into the justification for particular research. A recurrent questionthat one frequently comes across has to do with the motivation tofollow a path that may not only be relatively new and almostcompletely unknown, but could also comprise of dynamics that may ormay not necessarily fall under the criteria of current researchpractice. What do such investigations expect to gain from suchresearch? Could it possibly be to lead to the generation of newknowledge in its respective field? And if yes, than of what kind?Forthis article, the answers to the above have three justifications:a) The need for research conducted in the field ofCreativeWriting Studies as a means to add new dimensionsto the scholarly reshaping and a definite grounding of thearena as a proper academic discipline.b) The need to establish CreativeWriting Studies in highereducation institutes as a means of fostering a differentvariety of student learning, where the student works as hisown teacher, in his own rights.c) Despite occupying a pertinent place in the Western highereducation, the discipline remains to serve as a rathermarginalized and an invisible ‘component’ of the Pakistaniacademic profession.Contrary to the decades-long establishment of a criticalpedigree in literary studies and the theoretical landscape of linguisticanalysis within the English departments in Pakistan, various researchinquiries have been unable to detect a concrete presence ofCreativeWriting pedagogy in higher education institutes anduniversities. Even in instances where the same is not the case, that isinstitutes wherein the form is practiced as a subject, it appears to be an academic discipline that is hardly ever driven by intellectual rigor,practice oriented innovative work, and is therefore often unreceptiveto its own pedagogical structure. Given the context, this articleidentifies a persistent need for CreativeWriting to be acknowledged asan academic discipline, and establish a strong hold in the universityacademic circles in Pakistan. Taking the discipline’s micro and macroenvironment analysis into account, the article will set out todemonstrate how conducting further research in its pedagogy canbenefit CreativeWriting as a discipline by adding further knowledge inits context, both within the university sector in Pakistan, and anywhereacross the world.